(Adds U.S. comment) By Sue Pleming WASHINGTON, Sept 19 (Reuters) - Major powers began negotiations on Friday about a fourth round of U.N. sanctions against Iran to curb its nuclear program, but Russia and China were expected to strongly resist more punitive measures. State Department spokesman Sean McCormack played down expectations for the Washington meetings, indicating agreement was still a way off, and urged Russia to put aside tensions over Georgia and work for a new sanctions resolution. "I would not set expectations high at all for this meeting actually producing a definitive answer on the substance or timing of a resolution," McCormack told reporters. Senior officials from France, Britain, Germany and the United States met at the State Department to discuss Iran and Georgia, which Russia invaded last month. Highlighting divisions, China and Russia were excluded from the early talks but were set to join permanent members of the U.N. Security Council and Germany over lunch to discuss Iran. "The Russians have always been very reluctant and usually every resolution of sanctions is an ordeal -- three or four months of negotiations, comma by comma. I guess it will be more or less the same," said a senior European official. "I think the big problems will also be with China," he added. "This resolution, if and when we get it, will be very weak," he added. PUT ASIDE DIFFERENCES McCormack said U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice had appealed to Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov during a phone call last week for the two sides to work hard on the Iran dossier, despite differences over Georgia and other issues. "We would urge them to put aside, as we have, any issues that exist between the United States/the rest of the world on Georgia and work on areas where we can work together -- Iran," said McCormack. World powers have offered a package of trade and other incentives if Iran suspends uranium enrichment. So far, Iran has ignored the offer. Iran says its nuclear program is intended to generate more power for the Islamic republic and not to build an atomic bomb as charged by the West. Earlier this week, the United Nations' International Atomic Energy Agency said in a report that Iranian stonewalling had brought to a standstill its investigation into whether Iran had covertly researched ways to make an atom bomb. Iran has withstood three rounds of limited U.N. sanctions imposed so far. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad reiterated on Thursday Tehran would not suspend its uranium enrichment program and brushed aside the threat of more sanctions. With four months left in office, the Bush administration's leverage is slipping on the Iran dossier, experts say, and Tehran, Moscow and Beijing are taking this into account. "Even without Georgia, the Russians and the Chinese had the plan to run out the clock on the Bush administration," said Gary Samore of the Council on Foreign Relations. McCormack rejected the view that time was running out and that only a weak U.N. resolution, if any, could emerge. "We are looking for the most robust Security Council resolution we can get," he said. Foreign ministers from the major power are set to discuss Iran on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly in New York next week but McCormack said he did not anticipate any decision would be taken on the timing or content of sanctions then either. (Editing by Mohammad Zargham)
A member of Iran's Revolutionary Guard carries a boy injured during an earthquake in Qeshm Island in the Persian Gulf, 1100 km (684 miles) southeast of Tehran September 10, 2008. A ...
